


Damage Control

by biblionerd07



Series: Media Matters [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Humor, M/M, Steve Rogers and the 21st Century, Supersoldiers learning about modern love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-25
Updated: 2014-09-25
Packaged: 2018-02-18 12:02:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2347790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/biblionerd07/pseuds/biblionerd07
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Steve comes out on national television and Bucky posts a picture of them kissing, Pepper sends the boys to do some damage control.  She probably should have done it herself.  (Sequel to "Scandal" but can stand alone.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Damage Control

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [Damage Control 损害控制](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3272114) by [blakjc](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blakjc/pseuds/blakjc)



> This is mostly for the wonderful [Shaish](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Shaish/pseuds/Shaish), who I believe has commented on every Steve/Bucky fic I've ever written and is great and encouraging and a generally awesome person.

“Bucky! How's your relationship with Captain America?”

“Sergeant Barnes, what's your favorite thing about the modern world?”

“Hey, Winter Soldier, are you ever going to answer for your crimes?”

Bucky ignores the paparazzi swarming around him, even the ones trying to push up against him. Bucky is totally good at not killing people for touching him these days. He's focused. He's on a mission of vital importance. The fate of the world could hang in the balance.

He's getting coffee.

The thing is this: he and Steve haven't exactly left the Tower in about three days, since Steve's impromptu coming out on live television. They've been...making up for lost time. They'd been low on coffee when they went under, and they'd made do with the stuff Tony keeps in the communal kitchen, but it's fancy, expensive shit neither of them like. And Steve Rogers without his coffee is not a fun man.

The caffeine doesn't even _do_ anything for him. It's just all psychological.

Bucky is still a little miffed that morning sex doesn't make up for the lack of coffee, but he doesn't really want to keep drinking Tony's stuff, either. So here he is, being the hero, braving the world to bring home some coffee. It's kind of like the old days. Except for the reporters following him around. And the fact that he can buy any coffee he wants and not even glance at price. And the metal arm he keeps covered. And, okay, _everything_.

He gets back to the Tower without so much as growling at anyone, which he feels he should be compensated for. That's not exactly an easy task on the best of days, and this morning he's had neither sex nor coffee because Steve had woken up at an even more ungodly hour than usual to go running. Bucky should get a damn medal, really—a medal he'd actually have earned, unlike all those ceremonial ones the Army had given him after he didn't die.

“Steve!” He cries triumphantly once he gets the door open. “I got coffee and all these reporters swarmed me and I didn't say anything rude and I didn't punch anyone. Get out here and reward me. Any reward you want, but I'd prefer a blo—”

He chokes, and he files the irony away for a moment when he is not screaming about blow jobs with Pepper Potts sitting in his kitchen. She has her lips pressed together and Bucky senses she's trying hard not to laugh at him. He knows these modern women don't go putting on airs about being pure as the driven snow as much as the dames in his day did, but he still feels mortified about broadcasting their sex life.

“Hi, Ms. Potts,” he gulps.

“Hello, Sergeant Barnes.” She tips her head to the side and gives him a playful smile. She only calls him Sergeant Barnes instead of James or Bucky when he calls her Ms. Potts instead of Pepper.

“I didn't know you'd be here,” he says unnecessarily.

“I'm sorry. I thought Steve would tell you.” She's definitely laughing at him. Bucky can feel how red his face is.

“Oh, didn't you get my text, Buck?” Steve comes out to the kitchen then and his eyes are a touch too wide to be truly innocent. Steve knows for a fact Bucky left his phone on the bedside table. Bucky shoots him a look that says there will be hell to pay later and smiles winningly at Pepper.

“Well, least I had clothes on, huh? I been caught in the altogether more than once.”

“Mostly by me,” Steve adds.

“Not that you minded,” Bucky leers and finally gets Steve to blush. Payback.

“Well, anyway.” Pepper is grinning openly now and Bucky feels more at ease. “I'm not sure if you remember that press conference Steve held a few days ago?”

Bucky laughs out loud. Apparently being a sassy little shit is a prerequisite to working in or closely with the Avengers. Steve takes the coffee grounds Bucky's still clutching in surprise and gets a pot brewing.

“As you can imagine, it's been receiving mixed reactions. Some people think it's great and some people think it's terrible.”

“I don't mean any disrespect, but I genuinely do not care if people think it's terrible.” Steve makes a little face and Bucky has to bite his tongue to keep from sticking it down Steve's throat. Okay, they've gotten a little carried away. They need to relearn how to be around other people.

Pepper laughs a little. “Yeah, I sort of figured. But we do need to consider damage control.”

“Damage control?” Bucky raises an eyebrow as he pulls out eggs. “Cinnamon,” he commands Steve, who's leaning on the counter beneath the spice cabinet and blocking it with his head.

“French toast?” Steve asks hopefully, handing over the spice in question.

“Of course. Promised, didn't I?” Bucky winks at Steve because he had made that promise in the middle of round four last night. For the first time ever, Bucky's thanking God he got that super soldier serum.

“Not so much damage control as...a way to get the fence-sitters on our side. There are some people who are going to denounce Captain America forever now, no matter what we do, but there are some people who are unsure.”

“Does it really matter?” Steve's practically begging. “I'm not running for office.”

“No, but public support never hurts. If you really don't want to, you don't have to.” The look on Pepper's face somewhat belies that statement.

“What sort of thing are we talking here? Steve goes out and kisses some babies, lets people see him go into the soup kitchen instead of sneaking in the back?” Bucky cuts in. Steve gives him a dirty look. He seems to think his compassion is a secret. Bucky rolls his eyes. Literally everyone at Stark Tower knows where Steve goes on Wednesday mornings.

“Well. Community outreach is certainly helpful,” Pepper says. “I had a specific outreach in mind.”

 

“This is a _terrible_ idea,” Bucky mutters out of the side of his mouth. They're sitting in hard plastic chairs in a high school gym in front of a group of twenty or so teenagers while one of the kids who got caught with his pants down in the museum introduces them in a trembling voice.

“Seriously. I can't tell if half these kids are boys or girls,” Steve agrees, then cringes and hurriedly adds, “Not that it matters, of course, but I just don't think I've ever seen...” He shrugs. “Why am I explaining myself to you?”

“No clue; I quit listening to you eighty years ago.”

“You were sure listening last night.”

“That doesn't even make sense, Stevie,” Bucky laughs. “You are so bad at dirty talk.”

“You weren't complaining last night!” Steve crows. Bucky knocks their shoulders together.

“That's better.”

“What am I supposed to say to them?” Steve asks desperately.

“What am _I_ supposed to say to them?” Bucky shoots back.  
  
“Aw, Buck, just smile at 'em, you'll have 'em eating out of the palm of your head.” Steve gives him an exaggerated dopy smile and Bucky rolls his eyes but can't hold back the little laugh that makes its way out of his throat.

“Sweet talking guy,” he accuses with a grin, knocking their shoulders together again.

“We are so honored to welcome Captain Steve Rogers and Sergeant James Barnes to the Central Park East High School LGPBTQIAA club!” The kid turns back to look at Steve and Bucky and has the most comically terrified look on his face Bucky's ever seen, and it's extra funny because Steve's face actually rivals the kid's.

“What the hell do all those letters mean?” Steve whispers, panicked.

“How the fuck would I know, Steve, I didn't know my _name_ this time last year.”

Steve just looks disapproving instead of devastated. They're healing.

“Okay. I'll go first, I guess.” Steve sighs over-dramatically, but very quietly so only Bucky can hear him, and steps up to the microphone. “Hello!” He waves dorkily and Bucky snorts. “Um. Okay. Well, uh, I just wanted to say thank you for having us. We're, um, we're really happy to be here. And. And we think it's a great club you have here.” _Even though we don't actually know what your club is,_ Bucky adds mentally.

Steve makes his way through a bland little speech he practiced four times in the mirror this morning and Bucky stares at his ass the whole time. He's wearing the Captain America getup so it's an incredibly nice view.

“And, so, now I'd like to invite my best friend James Barnes up to join me.” Steve shoots Bucky a look that's sort of gloating, like, _ha, you have to talk, too_. Bucky rolls his eyes and walks up to the podium.

“Hi,” Bucky says. “Like Steve said, we're real happy to be here. I'm gonna be honest though, we, uh, we don't know what all those letters in your club mean.” He huffs out a laugh, rubbing the back of his neck, and some of the kids laugh, though he sees one or two roll their eyes. Steve plays the confused-1940s-guy better than Bucky, apparently.

“Lesbian Gay Pansexual Bisexual Trans Queer Intersex Asexual and Allies,” the kid who introduced them rattles off promptly, so fast it's almost one word. Both Steve and Bucky kind of blink for a second, then glance at one another out of the corners of their eyes.

“Thank you,” Steve finally says. “We're really happy you all have a safe place to...you know, to talk, and to be with other people who understand you.”

“We sure as hell didn't have anything like this when we were in school,” Bucky agrees. Steve elbows him for swearing. “Uh, sorry,” Bucky apologizes.

“Buck, you wanna say anything before we start the Q&A?” Steve murmurs, hand over the mic. Bucky shrugs and makes a face. Steve nods encouragingly.

“If I can do it, you can do it,” he says.

“You're Captain America,” Bucky hisses back. Steve just gives him a grin, the little shit, and takes his hand off the mic. He does, however, move that hand to the small of Bucky's back, so it's not all bad.

“Well, Steve's gonna make me say something.” Bucky rolls his eyes a little, but he's smiling. “Um, yeah, we're glad you got other kids who understand how it feels to be...all that. Gay and all that. I'm sorry, I don't really know the appropriate—I don't know what you're supposed to call it all. In our day we didn't have so many terms, you know, and when someone called you queer it meant you were probably about to get your head bashed in.”

“It still means that sometimes,” one kid in the front row calls out, and Bucky laughs a little, then worries maybe it wasn't appropriate to laugh.

“Right, well, that's sh—um, that's awful. But if you guys can feel okay with people knowing you're that way, you know, more and more of you feeling comfortable about it, then someday maybe it'll never mean that. And that'd be swell.” He finishes up with a little nod and then glances over to see Steve smiling so brightly it might give Bucky a sunburn. He ducks his head a little to hide the smile he can't keep off his face at the sight of Steve and distinctly hears an _aww_ from the kids in front of them, which makes him and Steve both blush a little.

“So do you guys have questions for us?” Steve asks. Every kid raises a hand and Steve's eyes widen. “Okay. Why don't we just start from this side and work our way over?”

“Do you identify as gay or bisexual or something else?” A girl—Bucky thinks it's a girl; Steve wasn't wrong about not being totally sure with some of them, though he supposes it doesn't altogether matter—asks. Steve and Bucky look at one another and Bucky thinks this is probably going to be their most common reaction: confusion.

“I think bisexual.” Steve always goes first because he's braver and Bucky's not even ashamed to admit it. “At least for me. I, you know, I've seen women I've been attracted to. And then there's Bucky. And I've been attracted to other men, too, so. I don't—I don't actually know what else there could be that you're asking about.”

“Pansexual, demisexual...” The girl trails off when she sees how confused they are. “Let's just start with bisexual.”

“Uh, I'd say I'm both, too,” Bucky says after Steve prompts him with a nudge. “I do love me a dame. But I've always wanted Steve, so...I don't know, is there like, I like women but I'm only qu—gay for Steve? 'Cause I haven't really looked at any other fellas.”

“Could be demisexual,” someone suggests. “Not attracted to people until you form a connection to them.”

Steve snorts. “That's not it. Not for women, anyway.” Bucky gives him a mock-glare.

“Don't you go implying I'm fast, Steve Rogers.”

“Half the girls in Brooklyn could back me up.”

“Not anymore!”

“I bet some of your dames are still alive.”

“Yeah? Maybe I'll look 'em up after I get sick of you.”

They hear laughter and remember they have an audience. Bucky smiles sheepishly while Steve just blushes. “Well, who's next?” Steve prompts.

“Did you _really_ not get together until Captain Rogers did that press conference about Jamie and Andrew getting it on in the museum?”

 _Getting it on?_ Steve mouths to Bucky. He leans close into Steve's ear and whispers, “Sex, Stevie. They were having sex.” Steve rolls his eyes and elbows Bucky away.

“Yeah, we really didn't. Even lived together for a few years. We shared a _bed_ sometimes and we weren't getting up to any funny business. Damn near killed me,” Bucky admits, shaking his head.

“So you were in love even back then when Captain Rogers was small?”

Bucky frowns. “There wasn't a thing wrong with how Steve looked back then. I'd say there wasn't anything wrong with his body, but he couldn't breathe so good and he was in pain all the time and he got sick a lot, so I was kinda worried he was going to die. But yeah, I loved him. Loved him when his only rank was Captain Bony Ass.” That gets a laugh out of everyone and Bucky puffs up a little in pride.

“Bucky was the only one who thought I was attractive,” Steve breaks in wryly.

“That is not even true,” Bucky argues. “There were plenty of girls who liked you. You were just so damn picky.”

“Buck! They never gave me a second look because they always wanted to be with you. Though I can't say I blame 'em, since I always did, too.”

“Ruth McClintock,” Bucky sing-songs, and grins at the immediate blush that spreads over Steve's face. “Yeah, you weren't wishing she was me on _that_ date.” Ruth McClintock was Steve's first kiss and gave him a hand job against the grimy brick wall behind the diner where they'd eaten dinner. He'd punctuated the whole thing with an asthma attack and his heart had started beating so out of control he'd almost passed out. They hadn't gone out again.

“How about we—let's get another question,” Steve sputters and Bucky laughs.

They field questions for another hour, questions ranging from _wasn't it hard to see the guy you loved fighting during the war?_ (desperately so, especially considering what happened to Bucky) to _have you ever drawn him naked?_ (absolutely).

They pose for pictures afterward, some just for the kids on their cell phones and some for a few news channels Pepper had rustled up. They don't touch more than an arm around the other's shoulders in any of the pictures; basically everyone in the country knows they're together, but that doesn't automatically erase their awkwardness with PDA. They smile in picture after picture until Bucky can tell he's starting to slip.

“Last one,” Steve says apologetically but firmly. One of the kids who'd been lurking in the back bites her lip and rushes forward.

“Would it be okay if you held this sign?” She asks all in a rush. They look down; all it says is _Matthew 7:1-3_.

“Judge not, lest ye be judged,” Steve says, the long-ago good Catholic boy with the eidetic memory. He looks at Bucky, who shrugs.

“Not a statement I disagree with,” Bucky says. They each take a side of the sign and hold it between them, forcing out smiles one last time.

They're glad to get out of the gym, waving at kids. Steve calls out, “Stay in school!” as they walk down the front steps and Bucky laughs so hard he almost falls down the stairs. Steve scowls at him and Bucky laughs harder.

“See what you get tonight,” Steve mutters.

“Oh, I know what I'm getting tonight,” Bucky counters. “I believe I made you a promise yesterday.”

Steve goes bright red as he remembers. “Okay, fine,” he relents. “But after that.” Bucky just laughs some more. Neither of them can resist the other.

They're just inside their front door when Steve's phone buzzes with a text from Pepper. _Bible thumpers out for blood now that a 'gay icon' used a Bible verse._ She reports. Steve sighs, exasperated.

“Am I going to have to go to some Bible convention now?” He spreads his arms in frustration and Bucky slides into them. “Wow, Buck. That was very smooth,” Steve congratulates him.

“Smooth like honey,” Bucky murmurs, getting to work on Steve's neck. Steve's phone buzzes again and Steve huffs, annoyed. It's Pepper again.

_Do I want to know why #captainbonyass is trending?_

Steve buries his phone between the couch cushions. He's done dealing with scandals.

**Author's Note:**

> I know the A doesn't actually stand for ally, but at my high school that's what we were told, and I think it's possibly because high schools want it to be more of a gay-straight alliance? Although I was in high school a while ago so maybe they don't include ally anymore.


End file.
